All of that aid is conditional, at least as the various recipients see it, on the constant threat of war. If peace broke out — real peace, not “keep coughing up or those other guys suffer” — the gravy train might come to a screeching halt.

So real peace won’t break out.

The US government has been buying two things, for decades now, with its billions of dollars in annual regional aid:

Maintenance of a situation of possible war, near war or low-intensity war with occasional escalations and de-escalations; and